Illuminata Rwelamira

Biography

Illuminata Rwelamira is a 33 year old Tanzanian female, born on the 15th November 1980 in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire. She is the 5th child in a family of 7 children. Her parents, Mr. Peter Gervas Rwelamira and her mother Philomena Kemilembe Rwelamira are both from Bukoba. During his employed days, Mr. Rwelamira worked as an Economist for the ADB (African Development Bank) and was based in Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory-Coast). This provided the opportunity for his children, including Illuminata to study in French schools.

Illuminata did her primary school at College Internationale Jean-Mermoz in Abidjan. She then went on to do her secondary education at St. Margaret’s School and St. Leonard’s-Mayfield School in England. She began her university studies in 1999 at Manchester University. She then came back to Tanzania and pursued an Advanced Diploma in Banking at the Institute of Finance Management (IFM). She is currently taking Professional Banking studies online with a South-African University.

Illuminata is blessed with 3 brothers and 3 sisters who all reside in Tanzania. Inviolata, the 1st born works as a Sales and Marketing Manager for a Radio Station here in Dar-Es-Salaam, Edgar who is self-employed is the pioneer of a waste disposal company which in the course of disposing of the city’s waste will aid in the production of electricity. Eric is an Advocate and heads the Legal Department of a mobile network company, Irene (a.k.a Renee Lamira) who by trait is a computer scientist is also self-employed. Evard is Head of IT for a Medical Insurance Company and Alma has just graduated from Law School and is currently pursuing her Masters.

Growing up, Illuminata and her sisters enjoyed singing a lot and they often organised singing and dancing competitions amongst themselves at home. They sometimes even performed dance routines which they had choreographed themselves at special occasions around the city of Abidjan. Illuminata and Irene especially dreamt of venturing into the music industry. In 2003, Illuminata took part in a music competition, namely COCA-COLA POPSTARS where she managed to reach the top 6. Unfortunately 3 others were chosen, leaving her and 2 others and the 3 that were chosen went on to form the group WAKILISHA, composed of the late LANGA, WITNESS and SARAH (now a solo artist known as Shaa). Illuminata did not give up on her dream and went on again to take part in TUSKER PROJECT FAME in 2009 and was again amongst the top 10.

Illuminata currently works for CRDB Bank. She is a single mother blessed with 2 sons, Marcus-Jerome and Alexander. She aspires to be the founder of an NGO that will look after women who have not been very fortunate in their lives, from broken homes, broken marriages with nothing to their name, single mothers lacking financial support and any other women who have had a bad turn of events in their lives. She wishes to name her NGO PETER & PHILO’s, after her parents, without whom she believes she would not be the person she is today. Illuminata is a fond linguist and happens to speak 3 languagues, namely English, French and Swahili. She understands Spanish and Italian and hopes to perfect her knowledge of these languages by taking up a course in Translation and Interpretation in the near future.

One Month Date is Iluminata’s first appearance as an actress in the booming East African film industry. She played Vene in the movie, a divorced single mother of two children who falls in love with successful young businessman of the same age without children.